The legendary Scottish comedian and actor Stanley Baxter has died aged 99.
The Glasgow-born star rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s with sketch shows, earning a BAFTA and attracting huge audiences for his festive specials.
A multi-faceted comic actor and impressionist, he was bold enough to mimic the Pope and even the Queen.
He was also a beloved figure in pantomime and film. He had lived in Denville Hall since late 2023 and was a few months away from celebrating his 100th birthday.
His biographer, Herald journalist Brian Beacom, was also a close friend.
“Stanley has a massive figure in entertainment not only in Scotland but throughout the UK and such was his influence he provided to be an incredible inspiration to the likes of Billy Connolly, Alan Cumming, and panto star Johnny McKnight,” he told STV News.
“Stanley was not only a standard entertainer, however. He showed that comedy could be slightly subversive as well as being enormous fun.
Getty Images“He took risks, he took chances with material, yet he always managed to keep just to the right side of the line.
“It’s no wonder that Stanley is still considered to be a comedy wonder today.”
Stanley Baxter began his career as a child performer on BBC Scotland’s Children’s Hour, later serving in the celebrated Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) unit during WWII.
After the war, he established himself in theatre — performing at Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre and becoming a pantomime favourite.
Getty ImagesHe played a lead role in the first ever programme broadcast on STV – This is Scotland.
He moved to London in 1959 to focus on TV, appearing in a series of sketch shows like On the Bright Side and The Stanley Baxter Show on the BBC and then The Stanley Baxter Picture Show on ITV.
“Baxter had an impressive range: straight actor, comic actor, impressionist, panto dame and, of course, the author of the forever-beloved ‘Parliamo Glasgow’ sketches,” former STV special correspondent Bernard Ponsonby said.
“He had a malleable face, with flared nostrils and a mouth that could twist and contort to help in the impressions business. He had an impressive vocal range too, which would lead to various impressions in a range of accents.”
Baxter earned multiple BAFTA awards and attracted millions of viewers.
Baxter remained a revered figure in pantomime and British comedy until his retirement in the early 1990s.
He came out as gay at the age of 94 in his 2020 authorised biography The Real Stanley Baxter. He revealed his marriage was a façade and that he had hidden the truth to avoid arrest in the years before homosexuality was decriminalised.
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